


Beach Break

by Viaxial



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beach, Day At The Beach, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-07-27 05:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7604992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viaxial/pseuds/Viaxial
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A nice and relaxing short story about the space squad taking a day off on a planet that has a beach. But warning, there's space swears.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beach Break

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, uh hi? Is anyone there?  
> Writing again after years of a self-imposed hiatus is.... odd, to say the least. And I mean years folks, I'm talking at least 6. Do people even put little personal tidbits like this in the beginning anymore? The meta has changed so much, so forgive me while I catch up on recent trends. But enough about me, onto the story!
> 
> Putting the space gang on a beach was an idea I'd had bouncing around my head for a few days, and it just seemed like too much fun to let it go. This is just a simple beach AU, and as for where it falls within the timeline I have no idea. Congrats, you now get to pick and my story is now interactive. There aren't any ships in this one, mostly because I just don't ship anything ever, but your headcannons are just as valid here as they are in the show itself. And forgive me, I took some liberties with Allura and Altea since I've only seen the Legendary Defenders reboot once and don't know much about the world of Voltron in general. And also, I mean I'm sure there are technical mistakes abound but I tried to correct most of them, with a bit of plot convenience thrown in. I can't wait till I've shaken the rust off. But I hope you all enjoy my return to fanfiction!

The crashing of water against sand is what first caught the attention of Altean princess Allura and it filled her with a childlike wonder. She stepped off the ramp of a ship in the shape of a large black lion and looked around, mesmerized. The beach seemed to be right up against an enormous hill, and all along the shoreline it was dotted with jutting rocks in various shapes.

On her home world of Altea, she'd spent most of her time either in her castle in the mountains or in the vast flower fields nearby.

"Wow, this is incredible! I've never seen so much water in one place before!"

"See? I knew you'd love this place Allura, I picked it out just for you." The voice behind her belonged to a lanky teenager named Lance, whose mouth moved faster than anyone Allura had ever known.

"Uh, until a few hours ago you didn't even know this place existed."

"Hey hey hey Pidge, I sensed this planet a bunch of space miles out. It's my animal instinct I share with my Lion." Lance boasted to his smaller companion. Pidge looked at him skeptically through the lenses of her glasses.

"That 'animal instinct' of yours nearly led us into a small asteroid field." The rest of Allura's travel companions were beginning to exit the large robot and marvel just as Allura had. Keith, the one who'd spoken up against Lance looked decidedly unimpressed with his fellow Paladin.

"It's better navigation than you have, desert boy." Lance fired back.

"Why would I want the ability to navigate all of us into asteroids?" Keith stepped up to the pilot of the Blue Lion until they were nose to nose.

"Knock it off guys. We're here to have fun right now, so try to be civil." The voice of reason belonged to Shiro, the oldest of the Paladins and general peacekeeper. Next to him was the yellow Paladin Hunk and Allura's guardian and fellow Altean, Coran.

"Yeah dudes, we got a sweet day off from the life threatening space battles and horrors of the Galra empire, let's enjoy it." Out of anyone, Hunk was the most excited for this day. The sound of the waves and the heat of the sun reminded him of being home, if only for a second.

"I think over there is a good spot for us to camp and sit all our things down, don't you princess?"

"It looks wonderful Coran, let's go." Allura began leading everyone down the beach. The princess absently tucked a piece of her long white hair behind her ear, as the strong breeze had knocked it from her bun. "Do Earth beaches look like this one?"

"Well, uh, the ones back on Earth don't normally have black sand." Pidge jogged to catch up with the princess. "And the water is usually more of a light blue, not this cobalt color but other than that yeah." The two settled into a nice chat about their respective planet's ecosystems while behind them, Keith and Lance were struggling to behave under the watchful eyes of Hunk and Shiro.

"Think these waves look big enough to surf on?" Despite his cool guy appearance (or at least his best attempts at a cool guy) Lance couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice. While exploring one of the many planets they'd rescued he and Hunk had found what appeared to be the best equivalent to an Earth surfboard, and he couldn't wait to try it out.

"I think it's looking pretty good bro." Hunk grinned and slapped Lance on the back, just as eager to get into the water. "Man, after becoming a Paladin and all that I never thought I'd get to go surfing again." Behind them, Shiro smiled.

* * *

 

"Right here is good!" Allura set her stuff down as if she'd conquered this small patch of the beach, opting to set up shop in the shade of a large rock wall. All occupants from Earth wordlessly decided not to comment on it's vivid orange shade. "So what do we do now?" Allura asked gleefully.

Pidge crossed her legs and sat in the shade, running her hands through the sand. "I'm gonna build a sandcastle I think. You're more than welcome to join."

"A sandcastle? Sounds like right fun, I'm in. Now should I build the blasters first, or the hyper drive jump module?" Coran settled down to work.

"That sounds marvelous Pidge, I'll join in a second." Allura pulled out a beach towel and stretched it out in the sun. "I've just never felt so much sun on my skin, I have to soak it up." Allura removed the white top and black shorts she'd been wearing over her bathing suit and carefully folded them before placing her clothes into her bag. It was a simple black swimsuit that came in two pieces, though Allura almost chose one like Pidge's that didn't expose her stomach.

"I'm gonna go for a swim in a bit, Allura's got the right idea." Shiro also stretched out a towel and laid down next to the princess, placing his hands behind his head. "This is exactly what we all needed." The Black Paladin let out a contented sigh and closed his eyes, reveling in the simple pleasure of the sun on his face.

"How do you know your robot arm won't just short out in the water?" Lance asked, stepping directly into Shiro's sunlight to get a better look at his cybernetic arm. "What if it shorts out?"

"What if you get like, I dunno, shocked or something?"

"Maybe we should just take it off you just in case Shiro." Pidge's eyes lit up at the thought.

"We aren't removing my arm, I won't get shocked, and it won't short out. I'm able to shower just fine with it." Shiro responded, eyes still closed.

"What if we get shocked?" Hunk worried aloud.

"No one is getting shocked." Shiro was now desperately trying to recall his earlier moment of peace.

"Whatever you say, I'm heading in!" Without another word Lance snatched up his surfboard and made a beeline towards the water, Hunk right behind him with his board. Shiro let out a sigh of relief.

Keith glanced up idly at the rock face in front of him and wondered if he should climb to the top or explore further down the beach.

"Hey Keith, whattaya say I smoke you in a surfing competition! If you can even swim!" Lance taunted from the shallows.

"I can totally swim!" Decision made for him, Keith snatched up the third and final surfboard the group had brought with them and ran to the water.

"Here, you work on the castle's defense system while I go get us some water." Pidge picked up a bucket and strolled towards the water. She could barely stifle a chuckle at the raucous noises of her fellow teammates. To Pidge's delight the water was pleasantly cool, and surprisingly clear. She could count each of toes digging into the sand. "Well, no ones flesh has melted off yet so I guess it's pretty safe. "Pidge waded in up to her calves and let the current gently tug her along. Normally, Pidge preferred to spend her time indoors among the A.C. so she was grateful for the relief from the heat.

Knowing her sandcastle wouldn't be complete without the water, she filled up her bucket and hauled it back to shore. Over her shoulder she could only just make out the playful shouting of her teammates.

"Okay Keith, why don't you put your money where your quiznak is and get out there." The three boys were clustered together on their surfboards. Lance was, as usual, tormenting Keith.

"You're the one who challenged _me_ to a surfing competition." Keith growled, crossing his arms.

"Want me to show you how it's done?" Lance couldn't hold back his smile. He felt right at home in the water, and for the first time in a while he felt fully relaxed.

"Yeah, if you wanted to show me the wrong way to do it." Keith's scowl turned into a smug grin.

"In your dreams!" Lance was now more determined than ever to win.

"Hey you guys can talk about surfing all you want, I'm gonna get out there." Hunk leaned forward and began paddling. As if on cue, the water began to form the tell tale signs of a decent sized wave, and Hunk was the first to seize it. He hopped up on top of his board with the ease of years of practice. "Woohoo!" Hunk seemed almost graceful on the water.

"Save some for us big guy!" Keith laughed, and wasted no time racing Lance for the next wave. Soon, the three Paladins, guardians of the universe and part of the great Voltron, were nothing more than three teenage boys.

* * *

 

Back on the shore, Shiro was beginning to rouse himself from the light sleep he hadn't realized he'd been under. The voices of his squad mates arguing were getting decidedly closer, so Shiro figured he'd better be upright for this one.

"There's no way you caught more waves than I did!" Lance and Keith were at each others throats, figuratively and quite literally.

"And I'm telling you that you wiped out more often than you were upright!"

"Are we just gonna ignore the fact that I totally kicked the water's butt out there?" Hunk came between the two and put an arm around both. "I mean like, kicked major butt. Like how I did on that one planet a while ago, with that one Galra ship, remember that? Hehe r-remember that...guys?"

"That was a only a couple times, and you were hitting the water more often than I was. But it's alright Keith, we can't all be surfing Gods like me and my man Hunk here."

"What a load of quiznak!"

"Seriously guys, enough." Shiro stood up and brushed the sand off of his chest. "I don't want to hear anymore arguments while we're down here. Even though we're taking a break, we're still a team who needs to stay in sync." Shiro placed a hand on both the boys shoulders. "Now, why don't we all do something together?"

"Look, over there!" Coran turned everyone's attention to their left. Some ways down the beach, there was a large rock structure that divided the beach in half and stretched out far over the water. "Looks like it's probably be a lovely view up top."

"Why don't we climb up it and see if we find anything up there?" Allura suggested. Coran extended his hand and politely helped her up from the ground.

"You mean like rock climbing? Now that's a great idea." Keith actually smiled at the thought.

Shiro squeezed Keith's shoulder in agreement. "Let's get going."

"Is it really a good idea to just leave our stuff though?" Pidge's voice came from behind the sandcastle, which was now almost as tall as her.

"The scanners back in the Castle of Lions said this place isn't inhabited by much more than plants and small animals. It should be fine." Allura reassured Pidge.

"Alright then, let's go." Pidge still grabbed her bag and joined her friends.

* * *

 

"Guys, down here." Keith was the first to reach the rock wall. "This side looks safest, there's a lot of hand holds." He reached out and grabbed a jutting stone to test it. "Feels pretty solid, too."

"Alright, last one up cooks the space goo for dinner!"

"Sounds like a good idea Lance. Let's go everyone!" Shiro and the others all excitedly rushed forward.

"Aw, why'd it have to be climbing? Couldn't it be, I dunno, like first one to walk to the top? First to swim around?" Hunk groaned.

"Think of it just like the training we did at the academy." Lance encouraged, pulling ahead of his friend. He was just slightly behind Shiro and Keith (though he'd never admit that last part outwardly).

"Yeah and that sucked too." The Yellow Paladin mumbled.

"Now now, a bit of rock climbing is good for the soul! Why, on Altea all the little ones were experts by the time they'd reached my knee." Coran was surprisingly agile, deftly moving upwards.

"Hey speaking of Alteans, has anyone seen-" Keith's sentence was interrupted by the green bayard whizzing past his arm. "Ah!" The guys watched it sail up and over the edge of the rock lip. A sly looking Pidge rocketed up towards the top, with Allura clinging to the Green Paladin's small waist.

"See you at the top!" Allura laughed and waved before disappearing over the edge.

"Hey, no fair! We left all our bayards in the Lion!" Lance shook his fist.

Shiro looked over at Keith, who smiled and nodded. "If that's the case, here goes!" Shiro's right arm began to glow purple, and with a grunt he jammed it into the rock with ease. In one quick motion, he removed his arm and jumped up the rock, jabbing his arm into the rock again.

"Oh come on!"

"Better quit complaining and catch up!" Keith called down to Lance. Keith was focused and confident, with his years of climbing the rocks in the canyon where he lived back home guiding his movements. With Shiro almost at the top and Coran nearly ahead of him, Keith was determined not to come in last.

"Hunk, you have long arms so reach for higher hand holds!" Allura encouraged from the top. Pidge was just helping Shiro over the edge, and she turned around to reach for Coran.

"Oh yeah, right. Hey this is going a whole lot faster now!" With renewed vigor, Hunk began to scale the rocks in earnest. Before long, everyone had made it safely to the top. Everyone, that is, except for one.

"I can't believe this." Lance grunted. He was covered in sweat and nearly at the top. "There's no way Keith beat me!"

"Better believe it pal." Keith was barely containing his laughter. "I like my space goo to taste like lobster." He extended his hand over the edge.

"Yeah yeah whatever." Lance allowed himself to be pulled up by the red Paladin. "You won't be getting any if I'm in charge."

"Look over here everyone." Allura waved her companions over. She stood on the edge of the rock that extended over the water. "It's so much blue in one place, it looks like a jewel."

Indeed, the light of the sun that had started to creep towards the horizon lit up the water. It seemed to sparkle under the ministrations of the sun, as if saying thanks. Standing there, time seemed to slow down to the steady rhythm of the water below. For a moment that was all too brief, all of their problems didn't feel real.

"Uh, this moment is great and all but uh, how are we gonna get down? It is way past lunch time and I could use some goo." Hunk was the first to break the silence.

"Well, there's only one way down Hunk." Shiro turned to his companions. To the surprise of everyone, Shiro broke his normally reserved facade and smiled from ear to ear. Without a word, he turned and sprinted towards the edge. A powerful kick launched the black Paladin into the air. "Woooo!"

"Holy quiznak!" Pidge exclaimed. Allura and Coran tried not to wince, then both silently agreed to explain what that word meant to everyone.

"That's the coolest thing I've ever seen Shiro do!" Lance exclaimed, running up to peer over the edge. Down in the water they could just make out their leader swimming in circles below them.

"C'mon down!" His voice faintly floated up.

"Is that safe to do?" Allura asked nervously. She took a step towards the edge, glanced over and then thought better of it.

"I can give you a couple pointers before you go over."Pidge volunteered.

"Yeah, and it'd be better if you put your hair in a braid before you jumped. I can help with that." Hunk spoke up. While both Pidge and Hunk got to work on Allura, Lance was gearing himself up mentally to go over the side.

"Okay, alright, I got this. I got this, I totally got this." Lance took a deep breath and sprint for all he was worth towards the cliff's edge.

"Hey Lance!" Keith's shout startled Lance so much the boy was certain he'd lost a few years off his lifespan. The Blue Paladin skidded to a stop just a hairs breadth away from the cliff edge.

"You can't do that man! Right as I was about to impress the princess with my sick dive! What is it you want?" Lance glared at his seemingly innocent friend.

"See you at the bottom." With a wink and a cheeky two fingered salute, Keith stepped backwards off the cliff. Lance's jaw hit the ground.

"That little- I'm coming for you man!" Despite himself, Lance couldn't help but laugh. He waited till he could see Keith safely swim out of the way before going again. "This one is for you Allura!" Lance posed dramatically before doing a back flip. "Yahoo!"

"Oh oh me next, me next!" Hunk finished the last few plaits in Allura's braid and jumped up. "Cannon ball!" Hunk's joyous laughter could be heard all the way down.

"So, those are the basics princess. Just jump out far enough, and either curl up like a ball or make yourself as slim as possible. Keep your legs and arms crossed. Or if you want to be really fancy, there's always the swan dive."

"Swan dive? What's that Pidge?" Allura stood once more. The other's jumps had looked like so much fun and she really wanted to join them, but the princess was still nervous.

"You take off like I showed you, spread your arms like a bird. Then keep your head up, place your arms over your head in an arch and your body should go vertical. Or something like that."

"Something like that?! Pidge!" Allura's voice cracked. Pidge couldn't help but laugh.

"You'll be fine princess, I know it. Don't be too long!" Before Allura could say anything else, Pidge was over the side. She watched the small Paladin go all the way down and slice into the water. The cheers from the other Paladins could be heard.

"Well what should we do now princess?" Coran joined Allura's side. The Alteans watched as the saviors of the universe laughed and splashed about. She was so grateful she could witness this moment of peace.

"I guess it's time we jump. On three?"

"On three. One, two..."

"Three!" Allura jumped without any hesitation. Positioning her arms as Pidge had instructed, Allura seemed to be suspended in mid air. The rushing of air as she dove towards the water exhilarated her, as if she were a majestic bird in flight. Allura closed her eyes as the water engulfed her, the sounds of the beach becoming instantly muffled. Down beneath the waters surface felt being in a comfortable dream.

"That was beautiful Allura." Coran's voice greeted her when she surfaced. The others all agreed and made the princess blush.

"Thank you all. This is another first for me, oh Coran we must do this again soon." Allura playfully begged.

"I could get behind that." Pidge chimed in.

"Now now kids, as much as I've had fun today too we have responsibilities." Even as he said this, Coran's voice was wistful.

"But before we go I say we play a game that's popular back on Earth when others get into the water. Allura, Coran, have you guys ever heard of a chicken fight?" With a mischievous glint in his eyes, Lance swam closer.

* * *

 

The sun had long disappeared below the horizon when everyone got out of the water. In the faint red light, the laughter and excited chatter that floated back to Shiro comforted him. He'd fallen behind to have a bit of privacy. He couldn't be more happy with how this day had turned out; everyone had been put into a wonderful mood, he felt more connected than ever to his fellow Paladins, and Lance and Keith had blissfully stopped their squabbling. He'd save the universe a million times over if it meant he'd get more days like this.

Shiro's relaxed attitude would not last long, however.

"Yeah well, I bet you I can not only beat you back to the ship, but I could do it twice before you even got there!"

"That is literally impossible, and doesn't even make sense."

Shiro sighed. "Ah quiznak."


End file.
